Owning a piece of the same homestead that my ancestors settled makes me a steward of this earth. Like my parents and grandparents, there are days when I am sweaty and exhausted from good honest work in the soil; there are days when I sit in my cushioned chair on the deck admiring the clouds. I am fortunate to have ”one foot in the city” and “one foot on the farm.”

One Foot

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

How Things Were Created

God and his angels were in the middle of creation and
working out the final design details of the various earth occupants.

“Did
you want hallow bones on all animals, God?” asked one of the angel
draftsmen.“Or did you want them on just
the birds?”

“Just
the birds, please,” answered God.

A bit
skeptical, the angel asked, “Won’t they blow around? You already created wind
you know.”

“They’ll
be fine,” answered God.“We’ll call that
soaring.”

The
angels nodded and went on to the next questions.“What to do about that bland bunch of
butterflies you created – were you going to fix them?”

“No,
no.” God responded.“I like the
differences and we’ll make them a whole different group.We’ll call them moths.”

And so
the day went.As they entered the final
details onto the drawings, one angel looked up puzzled.He seemed to think about his question for a
minute, as though he simply might have forgotten the answer. Finally, he raised
his hand and asked,” I’m sure you must have told me, God, but just how long
does it take to grow a lip?”

I’m
sure that must have been how it went.As
someone once said, “It’s all in the details, you know.” There must have been some very fine last minute details going on when we were
created and some of it is a mystery to us, but I do know the answer to the lip question.

Here is how I found out. You see, I volunteer with a state organization to preserve
one of our natural resources – the prairie.They round up the Kansas City Symphony, send out a bunch of invites and
everyone shows up in a huge cow pasture to hear them play.Not only are 6,000 people loony enough to go,
but another 400 of us show up to herd them around.

The day
was about 85 degrees or so and a very strong wind was coming out of the
southwest.I was assigned to the trailer
taxi to get folks from point A to B.Our
hats wouldn’t stay on, but we slathered on the sunscreen and did our best for
about seven hours.I watched the
symphony for awhile and went home exhausted.

The
next morning I woke up feeling a little sand blasted, and went in to brush the
teeth, etc. and caught my image in the mirror.My face and arms were a bit pinkish, but not burned, however, my bottom lip was swollen badly and one would
have suspected a botox injection gone bad.Not only did they not form a “sexy and sensual” pout, it was pretty
clear they were going to in a painful state quickly.

Of
course, I slathered and dabbed on every medicinal crème I could think of, but the
lip tissue did what it was designed to do.It puffed up in full blister by day one.Each day was a repeat and the entire lip sloughed off as new tissue was
formed and old wounded tissue discarded.Drinking was done with a straw and burn crème was on it at all
times.

Each
day brought more healing, and new tender lip tissue replaced it, until finally
I had only one last spot where the damage was the worst.That took an additional two days.

So,
what was God’s answer to the angel that asked, “How long does it take to grow a
new lip?”

The
answer was “eight days.Ten if needed.”

On
about day six, I faced the healing process with awe of our Creator.This was not the first time I had been aware
of the most miraculous way humans and creatures are put together.Our bodies can be wounded or ill, sometimes
devastated, and yet there is a healing process built in.How can anyone who has ever experienced this
ever doubt the existence of the Creator?